Page 26 of The List
“You never told me how you met Wraith. Was it through Knox?”
Cleo sucked in a breath. “Um, sort of.” She licked her lips, shifting in her seat. “We were pen pals. Kind of. I mean, I wrote to him. He never wrote back but…”
A pen pal who doesn’t write back? There were definitely parts of the story she was leaving out.
“Well, you don’t hear that often. Nowadays, it’s all about the dating apps.”
Cleo smiled, but it was tense. Her eyes darted around the room, and the silence lingered. The mood had completely shifted. Was asking about Wraith too intrusive?
“He was in prison.” Cleo gulped. “With Knox.”
Ohhhhh.Well, I didn’t see that coming.She’d never mentioned that in her letters.Would you?Probably not. Addison tried to steel her expression, but she was not expecting that tidbit of information. Knox and Wraith were in prison? Inmates?What the hell did they do?
Cleo inched closer. “It wasn’t anything really, really bad, I swear.”
Oh fuck, did I just say that out loud?
Cleo scanned her face, biting on her lip and looking like she was seconds away from either a panic attack or a breakdown.
Yeah, I said it out loud.
Recovery on this would take some finesse. She smiled to the point of achiness in her cheeks.
“Of course, people go to prison for lots of things. Not all crimes are bad.”
Girl, the sole reason people are in jail is because they broke the law. That’s bad.
Cleo dragged her hand over her face, clearly in distress. “I don’t want you to think poorly of Knox. Because he was a great guy. And Wraith, too.” Her voice lowered. “They just messed up.”
Addison waved her hand. “No judgement here, Cleo. Everyone makes mistakes. Trust me, I know from experience.” Addison snickered, speaking her truth. But Cleo didn’t seem to be buying into it. She gave a polite smile, but Addison readthrough it. She was stressing over what Addison would think of the men.How do I fix this?
Level the playing field.
Absolutely, not!
Yes.
No!
Tell her.
Goddammit, I hate this story.The mere thought of it usually had her breaking out in hives from anxiety and embarrassment. She’d spent the last several years trying to rid it from her mind. Addison peeked over at Cleo, who was avoiding eye contact with her head bowed.Dammit!Well, if she was forced to remember, it may as well serve a purpose.
“Cleo.” Addison waited for her to look up. “For my twenty-second birthday, a bunch of friends and I caught a flight to Vegas for a long weekend. We started drinking on the plane, and we continued in the party bus to the hotel and down at the pool where we spent five hours in the hot sun drinking cocktails. Somehow we sobered up enough to go to dinner, hit a show, and two dance clubs where I made out with three different guys on the dance floor before being carted away by my friend, Olivia, who had the unfortunate responsibility of being the designated sober friend for the weekend.” Addison cocked her brow. “It was also the last time she went to Vegas pregnant.”
Cleo laughed. “It’s sounds like fun.”
Addison shook her head. “It does, doesn’t it? And somewhere along the way, I walked up to a blackjack table and lost three hundred dollars.” Addison raised her brows. “In one hand. By the time I got back to our room, I had vomited once in the elevator, but thankfully made it to the toilet for round two. The next morning, I woke up in the bathtub having no clue how I got in but thankful because I’d pissed myself.”
Cleo’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open.
“Then I was subjected to brunch looking like a cast member from a zombie movie. And the only reason I know details from that night is because Olivia showed me videos she’d taken. That’s where her enjoyment came from.” Addison smirked. “Does that sound like someone who should be judging anybody?”
Cleo laughed, ducking her head.
“We all make mistakes. No one knows that better than me. I don’t think any less of Knox.”
Cleo peeked up.
